Need Help Getting Toddler to Eat Vegetables

My 4 year old son refuses to eat fruits or veggies. He'll take one look and say no right away. I have put them in my sauce and made zucchini bread for the first time a few weeks ago and he loves it! My new thing is I have him try a veggie and tell him he can spit it out if he doesn't like it - the veggie would barely touch his tongue and he'd say he didn't like it right away so I make him chew it completely and so far, he's realized that he actually likes zucchini and green beans. I'm just sticking to my guns and eventually he'll realize he likes veggies more than he thinks. Kids seem to be intimidated by the appearance and color more than the taste. Good luck!

Honestly, this is a phase that will pass. My son ate things that astounded us at one point, then, when he was your daughter's age, all that stopped and he refused the items he once used to eat. Sometimes it is a texture issue or maybe she no longer finds the taste appealing. What worked for us was to not stress it. If you offer her a selection of healthy things that she enjoys eating, she will eat them. She won't put up a struggle and mealtime will be a little more pleasant. Does she eat peanut butter or other nut butters? Those are good protein sources. Keep her favorite fruits on hand so that they are available. Another thing that worked for us was to have lots of whole milk yogurt. I also bought whole milk and cheese.

To be honest, she will grow. She will be healthy. The best thing to do, in my opinion, is to not stress it. The more you stress it, the more she will stress it and you will end up having big food issues. Try to keep eating something that is enjoyable and she will come around. It may take several months, or in our case, a few years, but she will try other things when she is ready. My son is now 7.5, growing like a weed and is trying new things all the time. I attribute this to keeping healthy choices on hand at all times and not pressuring him to eat things that didn't appeal to him.

Unfortunately you can't make a child eat anything. There are other very good sources of fiber such as bread, cheerios!, fruits, and crackers- all of which she eats. Be sure you are choosing whole grain varieties of all of those foods. Cont to offer veggies to her along with foods she likes. Encourage her and eat veggies yourself. Be sure she is getting lots of fluid, because too little can cause constipation. Don't go crazy with juice, but you may see if she likes the Juicy Juice Harvest Surpise, and offer 4-6 oz once a day. A good book to read is "How to get your kids to eat...but not too much" by Ellyn Satter.

Try putting carrots and brocolli in a food processor or blender and mix them into your spaghetti sauce. She'll never see or taste the veggies, or put the veggies in the meatballs. You can disguise veggies like this in just about anything. Hope this helps!

Best wishes!

B.

Hello A.! I have a 15 month old son and he is the same exact way! i cannot even get him to eat fruit. He is on latulose for constipation for 2 months now and still has problems! He loves cheese, noodles, spagetti, bread, crackers and all that stuff! If you have any suggestions let me know! Its so frustrating! Good luck! I've tried what seems like EVERYTHING!

I think you were on the right track with hiding them in her noodles. But now that she is getting more observant, you have to get trickier. Puree the veggies and add them to her sgahetti sauce or the meatballs when you make them. They will be too small to see and both have strong enough flavors that she shouldn't notice the veggies if she can't see them. You could do the same thing with bread if you make it yourself. There are lots of veggie bread recipes.

My kids loved vegetables straight from the freezer, especially peas. I never really had a problem getting them to eat veggies at all, but they really liked them frozen. It is worth a try. The fruit/ vegetable drinks work great too. Juicy Juice makes on too that is really good.

I also puree veggies to put in spaghetti sauce and meatballs. I've even put in jarred baby food if I had it on hand. My daughter eats very few veggies unless they are in veggie soup and kind of mushy, not crisp.

I occassionally give my kids pediasure drinks to supplement their nutritional intake.

To help with constipation, I give my kids prunes. I use the pureed baby prunes (simply because they like it and I know they will eat it without fussing) and give them 1/2 to one whole container a day as needed. I also make sure they get some water every day (usually mixed with some juice since they don't like plain water).

Hope this helps!

Hello A.!

My daughter is 17 months old and also does not want any type of vegetable. Occasionally she'll munch on a baby carrot if we just hand it to her. We've been buying the V8 juice that is actually vegetables but tastes like fruit so she gets that if nothing else. She really likes it. We've tried strawberry banana and the berry blend. I'm sure it might not be an entire replacement for veggies - but you know how hard it is to get them to eat the veggies on their own. It makes me feel a bit better that she's at least getting something. Hope this helps!!

hi my son was the same way and he still is what i did was hide the vegetable in the meat (meatballs) maybe try splash drink it might help

Okay it might sound a little gross, but puree spinach or other veggies and add a bit of the good to her tomato sauce. Try getting some natural apple butter and spread it or leave as dip for crackers. You could even revert back to baby food and add that to items so she won't see it or see if she wants to eat it again.

This happens with most kids, they do go back and forth with eating a diverse diet that keeps them regular and that we consider healthy. Just be persistant. It takes 3 to 4 times of introducing a food before a child may even try it and like it. Blueberries are excellent for solving constipation and work from there. Just be patient and keep trying.